How do I know when ds has finished?

[hopingforanother]

Yes it sounds like a stupid question!
Five week old breastfed ds is obviously feeding - sucking well and swallowing for around 20 mins- then he switches to a very dozey light sucking so that i can barely feel it and doesn't seem to be swallowing audibly and I cant see him swallowing either. After he's been doing this a while I've started switching him to the other side which he guzzles down. I've tried leaving him on one side until he pops off or falls asleep and he just doesn't. Is switching like this ok and is it ok to assume a feed has finished if he's had 40 minutes and appears to have stopped swallowing??

Sounds fine and that you are in tune with his feeding

Those light, fluttery sucks at the end of a feed indicate he's finishing

I think at five weeks if he wants more he will soon let you know! So aslong as you feed on demand you should be fine ime.

Keep going, sounds like you are doing brilliantly [hsmile]

I think if you are swapping him after 20 mins it should be fine.

My DS did this too and he really gained weight, to the point where I was having to eat tonnes of cake just to maintain my weight, such a shame [hgrin]

Congratulations and you sound like you are doing a brilliant job.

Was going to put in the link to Kellymom, is my baby getting enough milk but can't get Kellymom to connect at the moment. If you google Kellymom Enough is should come up for you. Don't think it will tell you much you don't know but its quite reassuring.

Thanks everyone for the reassurance! He seems fairly contented and is growing out of his clothes quick enough, was just a bit worried that unless he'd come off himself, I was cutting his feeds short. But he'd literally stay there all day with a bit of token sucking given the chance.
I bf dd for 6 weeks, but never felt confident that it was going ok, though in hindsight I think it was going fine... I was suffering from health visitor induced weight gain paranoia I think with dd. Hope ro make it to the new year this time!

You'll be fine [hsmile]

I do the same thing with ds once the active swallowing has stopped and it's more comfort sucking. Mostly he'll feed from the other side too, sometimes especially if he's tired he'll be happy with his dummy instead. Depending on what I'm doing, sometimes I'm quite happy to just sit on the sofa or doze in bed and let him comfort suck for a while!

Ah that's good to know MoonUnitAlpha, thanks. Its really helpful to know what other people do!

I would say yes, if he sucks less and isnt swallowing then he has gone onto comfort sucking or "sucking for sucking's sake" as my midwife put it. I realised that my baby had had enough milk when she started to suck gently, then would switch sides and then she would feed again, and then suck gently until she fell asleep while barely sucking! When I was more confident (ie she was a bit older) I would put her in her cot.